An intimate evening with Steve Earle at the Mateel

This Friday Southern Humboldt is in for a treat, as three-time Grammy Award-winner Steve Earle will take the stage at the Mateel Community Center in Redway.

The Texas-born country-folk musician, storyteller, actor and author will be taking on an acoustic performance on the North Coast.

A one-time protégé of Townes Van Zandt, Earle has surrounded himself with and been covered by a talented cast of musicians over the years including Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Shawn Colvin, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and Emmylou Harris.

He grew up in Schertz, Texas, outside of San Antonio, received his first guitar at the age of 11 and left home at 19 headed to Nashville where he sang back-up vocals, played guitar in bar bands and did odd jobs to support himself. In the subsequent years, Earle worked with Van Zandt, met songwriter/performer Guy Clark and sang backup vocals on Clark's 1975 album, "Old No. 1." He then toured with Clark for two years, and worked as a staff songwriter for the publishing house Sunbury Dunbar before returning Texas and starting the band The Dukes.

Back to Nashville in 1980, he wrote songs for numerous well known artists.

"It wasn't until 1986, with the release of his first album 'Guitar Town' which garnered glowing reviews and commercial success that Earle became known for his performing as well," according to the announcement.

Fast forward to 2011 and the release of 'I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive' his 14th studio album that shares the same name with his 2011 novel.

"Of the novel, Patti Smith stated: 'Steve Earle brings to his prose the same authenticity, poetic spirit and cinematic energy he projects in his music. (It's) like a dream you can't shake, offering beauty and remorse, redemption in spades."

He's a multifaceted talent.

"Over the past three decades, Steve Earle has established himself as a kind of rootsy Renaissance man: The Texas-bred songwriter is also a political activist, radio host, rocker, actor and playwright," according to Rolling Stone magazine. "Early on he was a bandleader equally smitten with bouncy twang and brawny thud. These days he's known as the smart dude with the big heart, writing a heap of provocative political tunes that stand up for the little guy. After overcoming a heroin addiction that derailed his career in the 1990s, he's become a widely respected, highly-dependable workhorse."